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If government, industry, and civil society worked together to improve
efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025, the report says.
Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to
capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to
waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water
use in the entire food chain.

The water experts decided to target the food sector because agriculture
requires 80 percent of the world's water resources. With populations set to grow in the coming years, and as developing nations eat more meat and dairy,
water demand is expected to also surge. "It's likely we'll need two
times the water by 2050 than what we need today. The challenge is to
reduce the amount of water we need today," said David Molden, research director at Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, in a press conference.

In the developing world, wasted food is mostly attributed to harsh
climate conditions and crop-eating pests or organisms. Agricultural
productivity could double, the report says, if farmers adopt existing
water conservation technologies, such as small dams that supply
rainwater run-off during times of drought.

Post-harvest food losses, which in Africa range from 25 to 50 percent,
can be reduced through proper storage and transfer facilities, the
report states. In addition to investments in silos, "processing of the
products, to add value and keep freshness," would better preserve food
resources, says Virginia-based Millennium Institute president Hans Herren, who is a World Food Prize laureate, when commenting on the report.

The report called for businesses to minimize wasted water during food
processing and transportation by setting benchmark standards. Industry
should also create labels that state how much water each product
requires, said Molden, a report lead author. "If industry can demand a
banana has a certain shape or a tomato has a certain color, why not say
something about how much water it takes for farmers to produce those
crops?" he said.

As the world suffers a burgeoning food crisis-grain
prices rose 80 percent between 2005 and 2008-more attention is being
dedicated to food waste. Waste in the developed world is particularly
high. According to a 2001 study by the University of Arizona, Americans were throwing away three times as much food then as they were 20 years prior. A study released this month by the U.K. government said more food is being wasted there, too, costing the country 10 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) each year.

The international water report estimates that households in developed
nations are wasting as much as a quarter of their food. "Very few
people know about the water consumption related to the food that they
eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International
Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's
now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."

But Anders Berntell, the Stockholm International Water Institute's
executive director, suggested that a public relations campaign may not
suffice. "If a family can afford to throw away 25 percent of the food
they eat, maybe the price is too low," he said.